NKorea lambasts South defence chief

North Korea has lambasted South Korea’s new defence chief for threatening to launch air strikes against the North and accused the South of causing “uncontrollable, extreme” tension on the peninsula.

The South’s Defence Minister Kim Kwan-jin told a confirmation hearing Friday that jets would bomb the North if it stages another attack like the shelling on a front-line island that killed four South Koreans.

The North’s official Korean Central News Agency issued a statement Sunday accusing the South of staging a series of “frantic provocations” including the defence minister’s remarks.